Law Firms in Chicago, IL

Hiring a lawyer in Chicago: what is different

The ordinary limitation period for a personal injury is two years, under section 13-202 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Then there is the rule that catches Chicagoans specifically. A claim against a local public entity is cut to one year by section 8-101 of the Tort Immunity Act, and “local public entity” is a wide net here: the City of Chicago, the Park District, the Housing Authority, a public school, a community college, a forest preserve. A slip on a city pavement and a slip in a private lobby carry deadlines a year apart.

The Chicago Transit Authority is stricter again. Section 41 of the Metropolitan Transit Authority Act gives one year to sue and requires written notice within six months of the injury, naming the date, the place and the treating hospital. A bus or an L platform is the most common way an ordinary commuter falls into a six-month deadline without knowing one exists.

Cook County runs the largest unified court system in the country. Civil cases above thirty thousand dollars go to the Law Division at the Daley Center and smaller ones to the Municipal Department, with the suburban districts hearing matters from their own areas. Federal cases go to the Northern District of Illinois. Illinois also bars recovery entirely once a claimant is more than fifty per cent at fault, under section 2-1116, so apportionment is not a side issue in a contested crash.

What we can and cannot verify about an Illinois firm

Less here than in most states we cover, and the profiles say so rather than scoring a zero. Illinois publishes no business register we are able to read: the Secretary of State’s search answers an automated request with a refusal, and we do not work around that. So entity registration is recorded as a check without a source.

Discipline is the same, for a different reason. Illinois runs attorney discipline through the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, and the Supreme Court acts on those matters by order on an M.R. docket rather than by published opinion. The opinion indexes that carry Pennsylvania’s and Nevada’s discipline therefore hold none of Illinois’s. A Chicago profile carries that gate unanswered and says why.

The ARDC does publish a public lawyer search of its own, showing registration status and public discipline, and checking a name there takes a minute. It is worth doing, and it is the check we cannot do for you.

Deadlines that catch Chicagoans out

• Personal injury: two years, under 735 ILCS 5/13-202.
• A claim against the City of Chicago, the Park District, a public school or any local public entity: one year, under the Tort Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 10/8-101.
• A claim against the CTA: one year to sue, and written notice within six months, under 70 ILCS 3605/41.
• Medical malpractice: two years from when the injury was or should have been discovered, with a four-year outer limit under 735 ILCS 5/13-212.